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VIDEO: Gov. Perdue disparages 61% of NC voters on #Amendment1

Eastern North Carolina news station WITN scored a major quote from outgoing NC Governor Bev Perdue on the overwhelming passage of Amendment One earlier this week:

Greenville, NC (WITN) — North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue says Tuesday’s passage of Amendment One makes the state look like Mississippi. Perdue made the remarks in response to a question from WITN’s Brittany Gunter while in Greenville Friday morning.

On Tuesday, 61% of the state’s voters approved the constitutional amendment which bans same sex marriages. State law already prohibits gay marriages.

The governor, a Democrat who said leading up to the vote that she was against the amendment, told WITN that the result is wrong for the state.

“People around the country are watching us, and they’re really confused to have been such a progressive forward thinking economically driven state that invested in education and that stood up for the civil rights people including the civil rights marches back in the 50s and 60s and 70s,” said Perdue. “People are saying what in the world is going on with North Carolina, we look like Mississippi.”

Read the rest of the article for comments from a disappointed Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant (R).

Is this a “risky” statement for her, much in the way Obama’s supporters laughably suggested his “evolution” on same sex marriage was for him? Nope. Perdue, who supports existing state law on gay marriage which is very similar in nature to Amendment One, isn’t running for reelection even though she could have.

The elephant in the room here is that, by a 2 to 1 margin, black Democrats in this state voted in favor of Amendment One. Black Democrats typically line up with conservatives on social issues like gay marriage and abortion, but rank and file Democrats, commentators, prominent politicos and the like won’t bring this up during the course of any conversation/debate/interview because they need the black vote too much to be condescending to them like they routinely are to conservatives. Besides, it plays much better on a national stage for them to characterize their opposition as made up of nothing but “white conservative homophobic bigots.”

Bev Perdue enjoys a cozy relationship with black Democrats in this state. She has knowingly coddled them in the past in spite of their “just like Mississippi” views on gay marriage. She would be coddling them again this year if she were running for reelection. And who knows, even if she were running again she still might have insulted her black voting bloc with her Friday comments. Why? Because black Democrats have made it clear they don’t care whether or not one of their favored candidates/politicos change their views on gay marriage:

ARDMORE, Pa. (AP) — Like many black Americans, Dorsey Jackson does not believe in gay marriage, but he wasn’t disillusioned when Barack Obama became the first president to support it. The windows of his suburban Philadelphia barbershop still display an “Obama 2012″ placard and another that reads “We’ve Got His Back.”

If Obama needs to endorse same-sex marriage to be re-elected, said Jackson, so be it: “Look, man — by any means necessary.”

With that phrase popularized by the black radical Malcolm X, Jackson rebutted those who say Obama’s new stand will weaken the massive black support he needs to win re-election in November. Black voters and especially black churches have long opposed gay marriage. But the 40-year-old barber and other African-Americans interviewed in politically key states say their support for Obama remains unshaken.

Some questioned whether he really believes what he says about gay rights or merely took that stand to help defeat Republican Mitt Romney — suggesting African-Americans view the first black president less as an icon than as a straight-up politician who still feels like family.

“Obama is human,” said Leon Givens of Charlotte, N.C. “I don’t have him on a pedestal.”

On Tuesday, Givens voted in favor of banning gay marriage in North Carolina. Many black precincts voted 2-1 for the ballot measure, which passed easily.

The next day, Givens heard Obama tell the nation in a TV interview: “I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.”

But this fall, Givens plans to register Obama voters and drive senior citizens to the polls. Givens, a retired human resources manager, said she suspects the president’s pronouncement was “more a political thing than his true feelings.” But she’s not dwelling on it.

“We can agree to disagree on gay marriage,” Givens said of the president, “and then I leave him alone.”

To say gay marriage in any way hurts Dems because blacks oppose it is a pipe dream. Blacks voted overwhelmingly for Jim Webb–who was clear in his opposition to a similar amendment in Virginia–even as they voted overwhelmingly FOR the amendment in 2006. In 2008, California banned gay marriage, again with strong support from blacks, yet McCain and other Republicans benefited not at all. (Before you say it, yes, I know Obama was on the ballot, but the outcome would have been no different had Hillary been in his place.) The fact is that these anti-gay marriage amendments don’t help the GOP appreciably and likely hurt during general elections because significant factions of the Dem base–primarily blacks and latinos–will turn out to support the measures and the Dems. Why Republicans would want to entice their opponents’ staunchest supporters to thepolls with this idiocy is quite beyond me.

You are correct, of course, Aarradin, as far as you go, but quite frankly I’m surprised the percentage was as low as they stated, considering how little support gay “marriage” has in the African-American community in general and how extremely small that percentage is when polling in states with a higher percentage of traditional families like NC.